USA > Illinois > Henderson County > History of Mercer County : together with biographical matter, statistics, etc., gathered from mattter furnished by the Mercer County Historical Society, interviews with old settlers, county, township and other records, and extracts from files of papers, pamphlets, and such other sources as have been available : containing also a short history of Henderson County > Part 19
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WILLIAM L. RANGE is a son of Christian and Louisa (Block) Range, and was born and reared a Hessian, in what is now a province of Prussia. His father was a baker by trade, and he was reared to that business. His education was principally obtained in the common schools. September 24. 1858, he was married to Miss Caroline Nagle, a native of the same place. On the 4th of October following they left their native home to seek one in America, and after a perilous voyage of three months on the sailing vessel Aristiezer, landed in New York January 4. 1859. During their last four weeks on the sea they were reduced almost to a point of starvation, the ship having gone out of her course during the terrible storms that prevailed in the early part of the voyage. After landing in New York they at once came on to Rock Island, Illinois, where they remained about one year. when they came to Mercer county, and soon after permanently located in Keithsburg and established a bakery and restaurant, making the same their business through life. They are the parents of five children : Karl A. W. C., Lewis W., Emma A., Eda L., and William F. They are members of the Lutheran Church of Rock Island, where the older ones of the children have been sent to be educated and confirmed.
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Mr. Range was born November 24, 1834, and Mrs Range December 19, 1832. He is a member of Mercer Lodge, No. 210, I.O.O.F.
DR. SAMUEL KELLEY, physician and surgeon, is a native of New Jersey, though he was reared in Ohio, his parents moving to Cincinnati when he was quite young. He was born February 17, 1812, and at the age of about twenty began the study of law at Lexington, Ken- tucky, and was admitted to the bar at Lafayette, Indiana, where he had read law for nine months with Hon. John Petit and Hon. Godlove Orth, in 1841. After practicing law a short time he turned his atten- tion to the study of medicine, which he successfully practiced in Ohio and Indiana, the last twelve years prior to 1859 being spent in the latter state. In Fountain county he was united in marriage with Miss Frances E., daughter of Mr. David Parrott, September 6, 1849. In 1859 Dr. Kelley came to Mercer county, Illinois, where he has con- tinued in the practice of his profession, and has been a citizen of Keithsburg, where he is enjoying the society of his many warm friends. He has one son, Wilber, born in Fountain county, Indiana, October 27, 1858. He is a graduate of the Physicians and Surgeons Medical College of Keokuk, Iowa, where he received his diploma February 28. 1882.
According to well authenticated tradition the Campbells were Scotch Highlanders connected with the House of Argyle. During the period of religious persecution they fled to the north of Ireland where John Campbell was born, reared and married, and where to him his children were born. In the spring of 1849 he with his wife Catherine (McKee) emigrated to the United States, sailing in the Gertrude. After landing on the American shores they at once came on to Illinois, settling in Rock Island, where Mr. Campbell died from sun stroke in 1851. Mrs. Campbell died in 1857, leaving a family of eight children. Hugh Campbell, the eldest son, was born in county Down, Ireland, April 7. 1831. Soon after settling in Rock Island he became an apprentice to a wagon and carriage .maker. After completing the trade in 1860 he came to Keithsburg with a view of following his trade in this place. which, however, was abandoned at the outbreak of the rebellion in 1861. when he enlisted in company I, 17th III. Vol. Inf. After following the fortunes of war three years and going safely through a number of hard fought battles he was honorably discharged and returned to Keithsburg. where he permanently settled and engaged in the manufacture of wagons and carriages. October 3, 1867, he was united in marriage with Mrs. Mary C. Ball. widow of Lieut. L. T. Ball, of company 11. $4th Ill. Vol. Inf., killed in the late war December 31. 1862. Mr. Campbell has been for a number of years a member of the city council, and his
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good judement and thorough business principles have won for him many warm friends. Two other sons of John Campbell, John and Will- iam, are extensive farmers of Otoe county, Nebraska, the latter of whom was elected in 1881 state senator on the republican ticket. Samuel was killed at Atlanta, Georgia. Alexander's sketch appears elsewhere in this work. There were also three daughters : Mary, widow of William Collins ; Elizabeth, widow of William Walker, who is now the mother of eight sons; and Jane, wife of Samuel Warnock. The first two are now residents of Nebraska, the last of Kansas. Their father was born August 14, 1799, and their grandfather. Hugh Camp- bell, September 22, 1755.
CHARLES A. MERTZ, lumber dealer, was born in the kingdom of Bavaria, January. 30, 1844. His father died when he was four years old, and in 1854 the widowed mother, taking lier little family, came to America in the sailing vessel Magdalin. and settled in Rochester, New York. After a short residence there they went to Wisconsin. In 1861 our subject returned to New York, and in January. 1853, enlisted in company G, 159th N. Y. Vols., being a recruit in that regiment. The first considerable battle in which he was a partici- pant was that of the Wilderness; then followed in rapid succession Spottsylvania, the North Anna, Paumunky River, Cold Harbor, and the battle in front of Petersburg, up to August 25th, in all of which he was engaged. On the last date he was captured at Reams' station on the Weldon railroad with 2,600 others. He was. confined first at Petersburg, then removed to Libby prison, and from there to Belle Isle. In the last two places he spent three months. He was taken next to Salisbury, where he remained till February, 1865, when there began a general perambulation of prisoners in that region of the Con- federacy on account of the movements of Gen. Sherman's army. From Salisbury he went to Columbia and stayed there two weeks ; then about as much time was passed in Charleston ; a stop of a few days was made in Raleigh ; and then the detatchment went on to Jamestown, North Carolina, where Mr. Mertz and eight others made their successful escape from a camp of 8,000 by wading neck deep in water past the rebel sentinel and swimming the rest of the way for a mile. From thence his progress to the Union lines was a repetition of the experience of every escaped prisoner : he was fed and piloted by negroes, and he hid and wandered about in racking fear and anxiety for three long weeks. and traveled 240 miles when the squad struck the 16th N. Y. cavalry in the neighborhood of Burkesville Junction, Virginia. When Mr. Mertz was captured he weighed 165 pounds ; when he got back into the Union camp his weight was 98 pounds. His prison life forms a chapter
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of thrilling experiences and terrible sufferings, while he was the helpless witness of the most atrocious diabolism in the treatment of Union prisoners that ever blackened the page of human history. When the 159th was mustered out in May, 1865, Mr. Mertz was transferred to company H, 10th N. Y. Inf., in which he completed his term of service and was discharged at New York city in August following. He came directly to Mercer county, but shortly after went to the oil regions of Pennsylvania and stayed a little while, after which he went west in the employ of the Union Pacific Railway Company. In 1871 he returned to this county and settled in Keithsburg, engaging in the furniture trade with C. C. Wordin, the present gentlemanly clerk of the county court. In May, 1880, he embarked in the lumber business with his brother. their place of trade being on the corner Washington and Third streets. Besides a saw-mill here they have another on the Iowa side above New Boston. October 27, 1873. he celebrated his nup- tials with Augusta Belle, daughter of H. G. Calhoun. She was born in Keithsburg, November 29, 1862. They have one child, Ora B., born September 13, 1874. Mr. Mertz is a member of Robert Burns Lodge. No. 113, Illinois Chapter, No. 17, and Galesburg Commandery, No. S. Lewis L. Mertz, brother of the above, was born also in Bavaria, February 11, 1847, and emigrated to this country with the rest of the family. On February 1, 1864, he enlisted at Rochester, New York, in Battery L, 1st N. Y. Light Artillery, and served until mustered out at Elmira, June 19. 1865. Beginning with the battle · of the Wilderness, he fought throughout the campaign following up to the surrender of Lee. At the age of twelve he entered the Woodbury Engine Works, where he learned the trade of an engineer, which he has followed in different places, but particularly in the oil regions of Pennsylvania. In December. 1865, he came to Keithsburg and sold furniture with his brother a short while ; in 1867 he engaged with a surveying party on the Union Pacific railway ; in 1868 he went into the gold mines of Montana, where he remained nearly four years. He was married to Miss Janet, daughter of Daniel Keith, July 6, 1871. She was born in this place in September, 1849. They settled on a farm of 320 acres in Boone county, Iowa, and lived there six years. In May, 1880, Mr. Mertz removed with his family to Keithsburg, where he has since been engaged in the furniture and lumber business. Ile is a Royal Arch Mason. His four children are : Sibyl J., Jacob R., William B., Elizabeth M. The father of these brothers was named Jolm J. Mertz, and was a native of Bavaria, where he was born in the year 1800. In early life he learned the trade of a cooper, but later he became quite wealthy, and engaged
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HISTORY OF MERCER AND HENDERSON COUNTIES.
in farming. In the Revolution of 1848, he lost his property by sign- ing with other men, and in the same year died. The mother, Mather Mina (Watchter), born in 1805, has her home with her children in this place.
DENNIS MURTO, merchant, was born in Sligo county, Ireland, Jan- uary 1. 1882, and is the third son of a family of six children whose father died early in life, leaving them to the care of their widowed mother, who soon after sold out her interest there and went to England, where she remained till August 1860. She then came to America, bringing her three daughters. Dennis, the subject of this notice, left England in a full clipper American sailing vessel, the Martha Greenleaf, and after a voyage of nineteen weeks arrived in New Orleans April 4, 1858. He at once pushed on up the Missis- sippi river to Davenport, Iowa, but soon returned to Oquawka, Illinois, and hired out to work for Mr. C. W. Harris, beginning at $10 per month, and remained for three years. He was also for a short time engaged in driving stage and carrying the mail from Sage- town to Keithsburg. On August 14, 1862, being refused a place in the ranks of the army in the war for the Union, he started for California, from where he returned to Keithsburg in October, 1865, and at once engaged as a day laborer. In 1874, in company with his brother, he began the mercantile business in the grocery line, and in 1880 he become sole owner of his present prosperous business. Besides his town property he owns two good farms in Mercer county. December 6, 1865, he married Miss Bridget Gilrain, a native of Ire- · land, by whom he has one child, Mary Rose.
ALEXANDER CAMPBELL was born June 22, 1846, in county Down, Ireland, from whence three years later he came with his parents to America and settled in Rock Island, Illinois. In the early part of the late war, though only sixteen years of age, he enlisted in company D, 11th Towa Inf .; and carried a gun three years. At the end of this time he re-enlisted and was chosen color-bearer, and carried the old flag to the end of the war, when he was honorably discharged, having served his country as a soldier four years before he was twenty-one. On the 23d of July, 1864, in front of Atlanta, his brother Samuel was killed while fighting by his side. After his return from the war Mr. Campbell came to Keithsburg and learned the trade of wagon and carriage making, which business he followed until 1878, when he was appointed mail agent on the Galva and Keithsburg route of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroad, which position he has since held. December 16, 1870, he was united in marriage with Sarah A., daughter of John and Hannah (Wilson) Nevius, early settlers
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of Mercer county. She was born in Ohio. February 19, 1848. but was reared in Keithsburg. They have a family of five children : Daisy L., Walter C., Maud G., Mabel N. and Harry L.
DR. GEORGE B. SAPP, dentist. was born in Clermont county. Ohio, July 23, 1832. He received the greater part of his education in a log school-house in his native county. In 1854 he came to Illinois. In 1860 he began studying in Decatur, where he completed a course of study he had previously begun. In 1865 he came to Mercer county and began the practice of his profession. The doctor has been twice married. His first marriage was in 1860. but death soon deprived him of his partner. His second marriage was on June 22. 1871, to Miss Norah Plesants. They have three children, whose names in the order of their ages are : Ula. Rosa G .. and George B.
JOHN HELWIG, butcher, is a son of Christopher Helwig, and was born in Germany December 26, 1839. In 1856 he emigrated with his parents to America, and with them settled in Dunkirk, in the State of New York, where the most of the family and his parents still reside. In 1868 he came to Illinois and settled in Hancock county, where he remained till 1875, when he came to Keithsburg and engaged in his present business. Since his residence in Keithsburg he has been three times elected as one of the town board, and is one of the school directors. He is a member of Mercer Lodge, No. 210, I.O.O.F., and of Encampment No. 89. May 5, 1861, he was united in marriage to Miss Katharine Hacker, a native of Bavaria. They have four children : John L., Frank W., Lewis A., and Charles.
CHARLES G. SLOCUMB, lumber dealer, was born at Albany, White- side county, Illinois. January 1, 1843, and is a son of Mr. Alfred Slocumb, an old and well known settler of that county, who helped to lay out the town of Albany. He died there September 9, 1860, after a life of usefulness and industry. Charles, the subject of this sketch, was reared as most boys in a new country, at hard work, with but lim- ited means of obtaining an education, yet by industry and close appli- cation to study he has acquired a good business education. In 1865 he went into the army, and after his return home engaged in mer- chandising at Havana, Mason county, Illinois. This he followed but a short time when he sold out and went to Chippewa Falls. Wisconsin, where he engaged in the manufacture of brick, which he followed about three years. After this he engaged in boating on the Mississippi river. In 1876 he came to Keithsburg. where he permanently located, and engaged in the lumber business. He also owns a mill here for the manufacture of lumber. March 20. 1875. he was united in marriage
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HISTORY OF MERCER AND HENDERSON COUNTIES.
with Miss Maria E. Stephens, of Mount Vernon, Iowa. They have two children : Clyde E. and Maud S. Mr. Slocumb is a member of Robert Burns Lodge, No. 113, A.F.A.M.
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In all professions and occupations there are those who are "fussy," nervous and bombastic, making great noise over small achievements, while others are quiet, unobtrusive, meritorious workers in whatever sphere they occupy in the world's great drama. Such an one is the subject of this sketch, DR. JOHN S. ALLEN. He is not old enough to be a pioneer of the country or in his profession, but is performing well the part which he has chosen in life's duties. Dr. Allen is comparatively a young man, having been born in Galesburg, Illinois, November 23,, 1851. He is the seventh son of Sheldon W. and Fidelia (Leach) Allen. The doctor attended the common schools of the city of Galesburg, and also Knox College and Lombard University. He also took a course in the Western Business College of the same city. At the age of twenty- two years he commenced the study of medicine in the office of Dr. J. B. Vivion, of Galesburg, and after a due course of study he attended three. terms at Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago, and graduated in 1877. He settled in Kewanee, where he remained but a short time, and then removed to Keithsburg, where he has since remained, doing a fine- business in his profession. Dr. Allen was married June 20, 1877, to. Miss Florence, daughter of H. M. and Jane Condie, of Chicago. They have two children : Harry S. and John L. Dr. Allen is a member of the Order of Odd-Fellows, and is quite an active worker in the interests. of the order. Politically he is a republican, but pays more attention to medicine than to politics, and it has been the good fortune of few young professional men to more quickly win the confidence of the majority of the people than Dr. Allen has.
LANSING K. JENNE, veterinary surgeon, is a son of John and Sarah (Freeman) Jenne. He was born in Genesee county, New York, June 15, 1820. November 4, 1840, he was married to Miss Submit Ashley, a native of Ontario county, New York. In about 1850 he removed to. Michigan, and settled near Grand Rapids, where he bought land and made a farm by chopping it out of the green woods. This farm he sold, and in 1872 removed to Muscatine, Iowa, where he remained till 1880, when he came to Keithsburg. Early in life he paid some atten- tion to the study of veterinary surgery, and by careful study and good luck has become master of his profession. He is the father of six chil- dren, living: Newton E., Edward S., Frank F., John W., Sarah S., and Lua M.
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MILLERSBURG TOWNSHIP.
MILLERSBURG TOWNSHIP.
As we begin the task of writing the first history of this township, knowing that almost a half century has passed since the first settlement was made within its boundaries by civilized men, without so much as a diary of incidents and dates being kept of what has transpired, we can but feel that the task is a difficult one. The resources for data concerning the early settlement has been rapidly decreasing during the later years, till at present only a very small number of the pioneers remain to tell the story. Were the memory so absolutely perfect that nothing once known could slip away, we could yet expect to pen for the present all things of interest that have transpired in Millersburg township during the past fifty years.
But notwithstanding all the imperfections of memory, enough of the history of Millersburg township remains to impress upon the minds of the rising generation the noble and resolute character of the pioneers who first planted civilization and civilized institutions within its boundaries. Those old pioneers, 'tis true, did not lead great armies like Genghis Khan, or a Napoleon, or Cæsar, devastating whole empires and kingdoms, but they did a noble work-a work that should crown their memories with the honor of pushing out upon the frontier and laying the foundations of happy and pleasant homes for those who should come after them, in a wilderness beset with the privations and toils inherent to early settlement of almost every country. Let us seat ourselves by the grassy mound that marks the resting place of their aged dust and study their characters and the part they played in the world's drama, and then ask ourselves these questions : Are they not deserving of all the honors we can heap upon them ? Can the gay, festive boy afford to pass lightly by the character of his now sleeping ancestor, to study the character and lives of those who have become eminent in the world's history because of the cir- cumstances which made them? Is there not a lesson for the blithe and lively girl of to-day in the patience of that old grandmother now sweetly sleeping beneath the sod, after so many years of earnest toil, that her granddaughter might live the life of a queen instead of the life of a slave in a desert ?
There is a lesson for all in the character of these sturdy pioneers. whose toiling hands only rested when the angel said: "Rest; your work is done." That lesson can only be learned from the institutions they planted and nurtured till they were called away.
Let us look over and locate the territory of the section whose
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HISTORY OF MERCER AND HENDERSON COUNTIES.
history we are to write. It consists of thirty-six square miles, bounded on the north by Duncan township, on the east by Mercer. on the south by Abington, and on the west by New Boston.
Let us imagine ourselves near the center of this tract of country, looking around us from some high eminence, a half century ago. Almost at our feet is the Edwards river, quietly moving along to join the father of waters, flowing almost directly west across the township. On either side it is almost invariably fringed with narrow, flat bottoms overgrown with forest trees, and hedged in by abrupt bluff's reaching to the height of sixty, and sometimes eighty, feet. Casting our eve to the northwest we can see the forest undulations. like the billows of an angry sea, where breaks of Camp creek and those of the Edwards river meet. This last-named stream flows southwest across sections 5 and 7. The Edwards makes a sharp curve on sections S and 9, approaching almost to within one mile of the north line of the township. Looking to the northeast of the township we see the undu- lations growing smaller and smaller, until they present almost a straight line on the horizon ; this is partly timber and the rest prairie. Turning to the south, a beautiful landscape meets the eye. The tall, waving grass marks the gentle undulations of the land on the south and southeast; on the southwest the breaks of Pope creek extend north of the south line about one mile. What were at first low sags, extending back from the streams, receiving quietly the water exuding from the upland and bearing it on without a ripple, have now grown in many places into deep gulches, growing deeper with each freshet. At the time of the first white settlement the Indians of this part of the state had been conquered and most of them were gone. Could we have stood here fifty years ago, looking down into the Edwards river as it rolled gently along, we would have realized that the red men who once in awhile come to view the hunting-grounds of their fathers and visit the graves of their kindred are almost the only visitors to this locality. The deer, the wolf, the wild duck, the prairie chicken and the sand-hill crane sport upon the banks, watching the fish as they play in its placid waters, without fear of being molested even by the skulk- ing red man whom they had been accustomed to see creeping down the ravine, through the tall grass, to surprise them in their haunts. These were balmy days for these inhabitants, of so many different species. The red man of the forest had taken up his march in the direction of the setting sun, to make room for the industrious settler who was soon to follow. taking nothing with him but his wigwam and weapons.
As the red man moved out to make room for the civilized settler.
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so must these motley, but interesting and happy groups of birds and quadrupeds move out and give place to the domesticated of their kind. . Of the man of the forest but few traces of his haunts or works remain. save a few mounds on section 4. The section is well timbered with oak, hickory, walnut and other kinds of forest trees. Of so great antiquity are these mounds that the forest trees rising from their summits compare in size and age with those of the surrounding forest. These mounds are from three to six feet high. From some of them have been taken tomahawks of stone, arrow heads, human bones. which nature's forces had not yet reduced to common clay, and other trinkets. To us here is the history of a race unwritten so far as we can tell. save by the implements they buried with their dead. Of the lower orders of the early inhabitants few remain, and they poke through hedge and wood to escape the hunter and his dog.
The whole scene is now changed. The northwest quarter. which was originally all timber, is now partly cut off, and herds of cattle and sheep dot its hills and slopes. Looking to the northeast quarter. beautiful farms of waving fields of wheat and growing corn, with here and there a forest grove, meet the eye. Turning to that part of the township south of the Edwards, the fields of tall and waving wild grass have disappeared. in lieu of which we now behold beautiful farms, with cozy dwellings, inhabited by a prosperous people. This section of the township for all agricultural purposes cannot be excelled in the county ; nor can the part north of the Edwards be excelled for fine stock farms.
PIONEER SETTLERS AND SETTLEMENTS.
It will not be out of place to drop a few remarks as to the charac- ter of the pioneers. for the character of history depends upon that of the men who made it. The greater part of the pioneers and early settlers who located in Millersburg township were from Pennsylvania and Ohio, a few coming from Virginia, some from Ireland, some from New York and Kentucky, with now and then a settler from some other quarter of civilization. But. remarkable as it may seem. they belonged for the most part to the same class of society. They were people of small means, whose object in coming to the western wilds was to procure for themselves and their families homes which their means would not procure where they were reared. They were of that industrious and economical class who had not only been reared under the influence of christianity, but had been taught to obey its precepts from a high sense of moral honor and dignity. Like the Puritan fathers, they were scarcely housed in their cabins
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